This invention pertains to acoustic transducers, and particularly to mounting configurations for ceramic piezoelectric elements of the flat wafer type that are used in many industrial, commercial and medical applications such as flow meters.
Prior art acoustic flow meters typically position transducer elements behind protective windows. Although transducers may be mounted on the outside of a flow tube containing the flowing fluid, the best measurement performance is obtained using wetted transducers because of their intimate acoustic coupling to the fluid and lack of acoustic beam corruption when the beam propagates through the flow tube wall. However, the wetted transducer cost is relatively high because it is configured as a separate part that fits into a dedicated mounting assembly on the flow tube.
The inventor teaches a transducer bonded to a thin wetted window and encapsulated with rigid material to provide adequate strength for high pressure operation in U.S. Pat. No. 8,256,076.